Monday, 17 July 2017

When Rosie Met Jim by Melina Marchetta & Shoeboxes by Kathryn Barker

I don't read Review of Australian Fiction very often, because short stories aren't my cup of tea really, but occasionally I will if an author I love writes a story for them.

And, if you've been following this blog or any of my bookish social media for any length of time you'll know that Melina Marchetta is one of my top 5 favourite authors and she could literally announce she's rewritten the phone book and I'd want to read it...so there was no way I was skipping this edition of RAF.

I'm going to just do a short review for each of the stories included, starting with the one I bought it for in the first place:

When Rosie Met Jim

I really, really loved this story (which, as you may have guessed from what I said about short stories, is a rarity for me). It revolves around a girl stranded in a small town during a flood and while stuck there, she meets Jimmy Hailler (the same Jimmy Hailler from Saving Francesca).

I'm surprised by how quickly Melina managed to make me care about the characters in the story (which is usually one of my issues with short stories) and how thoroughly hooked I was by the plot. It was one of those ones that left me wanting more of the characters without feeling like there was something missing, which isn't always an easy balance to achieve in short stories.

And that's all I have to say really. The story was definitely worth it, and it has me so excited for Melina's next book (the Jimmy Hailler book she's been talking about for a few years now...I think this story was a prequel to that book and she's working on the book now, based on her blog posts?).

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Shoeboxes

This one...this one was a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect to love it, but I sort of did. Not quite in the same way as I loved When Rosie Met Jim, where I really cared about the characters, this one was different. It was more...subtle, clever.

It starts off with two women in a basement and we don't know if they've been kidnapped or why they're there really but bit by bit little details trickle into the story and...well, that's all I'll say because I don't want to ruin it.

Basically, it hooked me from the start and had me confused but intrigued right until the very end...and the end -- I loved the ending. It surprised me and left me wanting to read a full thriller novel by Kathryn Barker because if she can pull off a full novel as well as she can a short story then I'm sure I'll love it.

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5.

Overall: If short stories are your kind of thing, I definitely recommend checking out Review of Australian Fiction (every two weeks they release a new edition featuring two stories by Australian writers). Even if short stories aren't your kind of thing, like me, you might still enjoy some of the stories they publish.